Bloody Sunset
by tacticusthe11th
Summary: The wars over and the elemental nations have lost. It all comes down to two people in a cave to decide the fate of the world. In the end, the worlds only big enough for one Jinchuriki.


**Holy crap. I haven't submitted anything in forever. so, the basics. I don't own Naruto. review if you think i should continue this**

**peace **

**out**

He's standing at the feet of a giant statue. It towers over him in all of its grotesque glory, nine closed eyes and a gagged mouth all taunting him. Countless friends and enemies have died to bring him to this point. Kakashi, Sakura, Sai, all of the rookie nine, and countless souls that he didn't know, all dead for one madman's dream of godhood. Now it's just him and one other. A man holding back a monster and a monster masquerading as a man, they stand across from each other at what could soon be ground zero for the end of the world as they know it.

"You know that you can't win this fight little Senju. Don't make this more painful than it has to be."

His blue eyes glare across the room at the man who's taken everything from him. The people that he had considered his family, his village, his ability to love, all of it gone and burned by the man in the orange mask. Outside the cave they stand in he can hear the sounds of war and death. The last remnants of the villages are fighting his old friend, his brother. There's no doubt in his mind that they're loosing. Sasuke always was a stubborn bastard. The only way that they'll get him is through attrition, and there's not enough people left alive for that to work. Still, someone might get lucky, and the thought doesn't bother him like it used to.

"I'll make it as hard as I possibly can. You should know that about me by now."

The man snorts and shakes his head. He reaches up and un-snaps the four latches that hold his mask onto his face. It falls to the floor as the man pulls the black cloth off his face that the mask had been attached to. He stares at the jinchuriki with his face bare and smiles.

"I know that you will. It's one of your few redeeming qualities. Your kind heart and soft philosophies, those are all Senju to the bone. It's that stubborn and obstinate streak that makes me wonder if you might have some Uchiha blood in your veins."

At the snarl he gets in answer, the black eyed man chuckles. He idly traces a scar that goes down the left side of his face and through his ruined eye.

"You are the first person to see my true face in well over one hundred years. Others, I have tricked with genjutsu and shown them what they wanted to see, but you deserve to see my face at least, before the end."

"There won't be an end Madara. I'll kill you for what you've done to me, what you've done to my friends!"

The shout echoes in the cavernous room, but the man in the Akatsuki cloak just continues to smile.

"I thought that you had sworn off vengeance?"

"I was young and stupid. Some people deserve to be hunted, to be killed, people like you!"

"Don't act the sanctimonious avenger Naruto, it doesn't suit you. You have become just as much of a monster as I am. When Kusa tried to attack Konoha, you went well above the grade to stop them."

"I was protecting my village!"

"By killing them and destroying theirs? Face it little Senju, you've become exactly what you swore to end."

He snarls and leaps fore ward to tear apart the man who ruined his life. His eyes bleed red and his hands curl into claws. There is no trace of the great Sage who defeated Pein, only a wounded animal trying desperately to sink his fangs into his opponents throat before death finally claims him. Through his hazed vision he sees Madara's eye turn red. He blinks and his ancient opponent is in front of him with his open palm buried in his gut. The jinchuriki's momentum catches up to him and he folds around his opponent's hand. Then with a soft thud he hits the floor and tries desperately to find his breath.

"I understand how you can turn people to your cause. It's the same reason that I've always had more respect for you than for any of my other opponents. Hashirama, he thought he knew what he was doing, thought he knew what was right. I saw the rot that had spread into Konoha's roots even then, but no one would listen to the disgraced founder. They thought that I was jealous, that I was just trying to take Hashirama's title. Even my own clan turned against me. How could they not, after what I had done to Izuna."

The man stops talking and crouches down next to his gasping opponent. The blond has managed to fight his way to his hands, drool and blood dripping from his mouth as he fights for air. The old Uchiha grabs his chin and lifts his face level with his own.

"In the end, that's why I saved you for last. Those Senju ideas may pollute your head and blind you to what the world is like, but underneath all that, you are so much like my brother that even now, as we stand on opposite sides of the field, and victory is in my grasp, some small part of me still believes you could do all that you say. Perhaps if you'd been born an Uchiha the clan could have been saved."

"If you believe in me like you say, than let me try." He looks up at the scarred visage of his opponent and he can hear the desperation in his voice. "It's not too late, let me try and save this world. Most of the elemental nation is still alive. Even with the Great villages gone, there's still hope."

As he speaks, the jinchuriki struggles to his feet. Blood dribbles out the side of his mouth and his steps toward Madara are stumbled and uneven.

"It's far too late for that. The extraction has already begun."

As his opponent turns away from him, the eyes of the statue open and light up. He falls to his knees as a searing pain spreads from the spot where Madara had hit him, running along his skin and through his body, straight into his soul. Frantically, he lifts up his shirt and stares in horror at the glowing purple seal that has spread across his own and pried open the Shiki Fuijin. Before his very eyes red smoky tendrils of the Kyuubi's essence drift out of his stomach and up to the mouth of the demonic monument. Then he falls back, his ears ringing with pained screams that he only distantly recognizes as his own.

The pain goes on for what seem like centuries. His vision goes white and his limbs go numb, leaving him with a horrible pulling ache from the center of who he is. Then, finally, it ends. He opens his eyes and sees nothing but white. He can taste vomit on his lips and smell it on the ground he's laying on. The former jinchuriki ignores all of it and struggles to his feet. The room begins to fade into existence through his blinded eyes. In the end only one thing stands out in the darkened chamber. The statue is cold and lightless, eyes closed and cracks spreading across its surface. At its feet, glowing with white chakra is Madara. His shirt is gone, and as he turns to face his last opponent the swirling pattern of the Shiki Fuijin is obvious on his pale stomach.

"What have you done?" the former jinchuriki whispers with a harsh and faded voice.

"Exactly what I've always said I would do. Now I am the container for the most powerful creature in existence. Ultimate power guided by supreme intelligence. Even my old wound from Hashirama has healed." The Uchiha opens his left eyes and smiles at Naruto, the eternal Sharingan spinning in both sockets.

"That was your great wound that made you too weak to fight your own battles? One eye?" He lets out a laugh and collapses in a coughing fit. Madara catches him half way to the ground and carefully lowers him the rest of the way.

"That's the way the Sharingan works, one technique for each eye and one for both of them working together, six in total for my eternal Sharingan. Whatever that stupid Senju did to me made it so that my eye couldn't be healed by normal means, leaving me with just two Mangekyou techniques."

"So, now you enslave the world?"

"It's not enslavement," Madara says with a frown. "I'm saving them from themselves. People are nothing but stupid beasts that need to be tamed. They whine and scurry for peace while killing all who surround them for any mundane reason they can dream up. True peace must be forced."

"Then it's not true peace," Naruto rasps, a bloody grin on his lips. "Your peace will be nothing but an illusion. Humanity will die the minute you cast that technique and be replaced by puppets that leap to your every whim. It won't be peace, it will be torture."

Madara's frown deepens. He stands and walks away from Naruto before pacing back to him, running a hand through his hair. He grins and shakes his head.

"And just like my little brother, you make me question my every move. Would you suggest your approach instead?"

Naruto grin widens.

"It's a little late for that," he rasps.

"Perhaps," Madara mutters. The glow around him flares like a fire as he rubs his jaw thoughtfully. "But could you manage it with more time?"

"Why?"

"Because I can give it to you." Naruto frowns at him, one eyebrow raised. "I've been using time/space ninjutsu for over a century. I could send you back, give you another chance."

"If you did, everything you've done would have been for nothing."

"If I do, and you fail, nothing will change and I will still win. I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain."

"How? What could you possibly gain from this?"

Madara kneels down next to Naruto, his face grave.

"In exchange, you save my brother's life. After he gave me his eyes he was killed by foreign Ninja. Promise me you will save him and I will send you back."

Blue eyes burned into the twisted Sharingan of the oldest Ninja alive. Slowly, the blond nodded.

"I'll do it, but you better hurry. I can't feel my legs, and it's spreading."

Madara grins. He walks around to Naruto's head and crouches so that he is staring at the whiskered face of his enemy upside down.

"Considering that the Gedo Maizo should have torn out your soul, I'd say that you're doing pretty well. Look into my eyes, little Senju."

He looks up and into Madara's spinning eyes. The world around him twists and blends into each other until it's only Naruto and Madara in a whirlwind of color and noise. Then the spinning eyes expand until they've taken up all that he can see.

_Don't forget your promise, little one. _

The pupils of the eyes expand until the whole world is nothing but black and the shrill shriek blaring in his ears.

He wakes up cold and wet and hungry. He's screaming and screaming, and he just doesn't know how to stop. There is a sharp s pain near his belly and he screams louder. In his mind he screams that he has been betrayed, that he has been tricked, but none of his outrage can pass his lips. The giant holding him passes his naked form to another giant, a beautiful woman. She wraps him in a blanket and wipes sweaty, matted hair out of her face. He sees her fatigue and a horrible suspicion rises in his mind. Idly, he notices that his body has stopped screaming.

"Hello little one," The woman coos, leaning close and rubbing her nose against his. "I've been waiting for so long to see you and hold you like this. My little boy, my little Hiro."

"So you've decided on a name then," the older woman who had been holding him before says.

"Yes I have. Hiro Uchiha."

"He'll be the pride of the clan."

"Yes he will."

As his body snuggles into his new mother and falls asleep, Naruto, now Hiro, retreats into the back of his mind, and screams.


End file.
